Commit Graph

2 Commits

Author SHA1 Message Date
Karthik Nayak
53592d68e8 refs: add GIT_REFERENCE_BACKEND to specify reference backend
Git allows setting a different object directory via
'GIT_OBJECT_DIRECTORY', but provides no equivalent for references. In
the previous commit we extended the 'extensions.refStorage' config to
also support an URI input for reference backend with location.

Let's also add a new environment variable 'GIT_REFERENCE_BACKEND' that
takes in the same input as the config variable. Having an environment
variable allows us to modify the reference backend and location on the
fly for individual Git commands.

The environment variable also allows usage of alternate reference
directories during 'git-clone(1)' and 'git-init(1)'. Add the config to
the repository when created with the environment variable set.

When initializing the repository with an alternate reference folder,
create the required stubs in the repositories $GIT_DIR. The inverse,
i.e. removal of the ref store doesn't clean up the stubs in the $GIT_DIR
since that would render it unusable. Removal of ref store is only used
when migrating between ref formats and cleanup of the $GIT_DIR doesn't
make sense in such a situation.

Helped-by: Jean-Noël Avila <jn.avila@free.fr>
Signed-off-by: Karthik Nayak <karthik.188@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2026-02-25 09:40:00 -08:00
Karthik Nayak
01dc84594e refs: allow reference location in refstorage config
The 'extensions.refStorage' config is used to specify the reference
backend for a given repository. Both the 'files' and 'reftable' backends
utilize the $GIT_DIR as the reference folder by default in
`get_main_ref_store()`.

Since the reference backends are pluggable, this means that they could
work with out-of-tree reference directories too. Extend the 'refStorage'
config to also support taking an URI input, where users can specify the
reference backend and the location.

Add the required changes to obtain and propagate this value to the
individual backends. Add the necessary documentation and tests.

Traditionally, for linked worktrees, references were stored in the
'$GIT_DIR/worktrees/<wt_id>' path. But when using an alternate reference
storage path, it doesn't make sense to store the main worktree
references in the new path, and the linked worktree references in the
$GIT_DIR. So, let's store linked worktree references in
'$ALTERNATE_REFERENCE_DIR/worktrees/<wt_id>'. To do this, create the
necessary files and folders while also adding stubs in the $GIT_DIR path
to ensure that it is still considered a Git directory.

Ideally, we would want to pass in a `struct worktree *` to individual
backends, instead of passing the `gitdir`. This allows them to handle
worktree specific logic. Currently, that is not possible since the
worktree code is:

  - Tied to using the global `the_repository` variable.

  - Is not setup before the reference database during initialization of
    the repository.

Add a TODO in 'refs.c' to ensure we can eventually make that change.

Helped-by: Patrick Steinhardt <ps@pks.im>
Signed-off-by: Karthik Nayak <karthik.188@gmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Junio C Hamano <gitster@pobox.com>
2026-02-25 09:38:41 -08:00